Lesotho urged to drop charges against radio host

Maseru - Thabo Thakalekoala, of privately owned radio station Harvest FM, who was released on bail on 25 June 2007 after being held for three days for reading a letter on the air demanding the prime minister's resignation, has been charged with "failing to report subversive activity". It was reportedly given to him by members of the armed forces.

He was initially accused of "high treason”.

"The government of Lesotho has never been happy with the idea of privately owned media that are not under its control," Reporters Without Borders, the media watchdog organisation says in a statement, in which it calls for the charges against the radio host to be dropped.

"This case shows that it has not understood that it is absurd to arrest a journalist on such extravagant charges and just leads to polarisation. Its battle against Harvest FM is unfair and sterile. Dropping all charges is an obvious precondition for defusing tension," says the statement.

The presenter of Harvest FM's "Rise and Shine" morning programme and Lesotho correspondent of many international news media, Thakalekoala is one of the country's best-known journalists. The letter he read on the air on 22 June described Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili as the "unwanted ruler of Lesotho" and said he deserved to be arrested because, as a person of South African origin, he had broken the law by running for office and holding the position of head of government.

Listeners outraged

He was arrested as the programme finished and was held for three days at police headquarters in the capital, Maseru, where he went on hunger strike in protest against his detention.

Outraged reactions by listeners and the Lesotho branch of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (which Thakalekoala heads) seem to have played a role in his release. He is now charged under Article 9 of the 1984 internal security law, and his trial is scheduled to start on 25 July.

Harvest FM has often been accused by the government of being the headquarters of the All Lesotho Convention, the main opposition party. The station's editor and star presenter, Reverend Adam Lekhoaba, was deported to South Africa after February's general elections on the grounds that he had no work permit and had tried to "incite revolt" and "disturb the peace."

During the elections, the station broadcast results as they came in and interviewed many opposition supporters who criticised the way the elections were held.

Thakalekoala has also claimed that he was forced to broadcast the contents of the letter, on pain of death.

He says he read the letter on his early morning talk show, Rise and Shine, denigrating the prime minister, Pakalitha Mosisili, as the "the unwanted ruler of Lesotho" after death threats were made against him, "purportedly from [members of the] LNA (Lesotho National Army)".

"I did not feel right reading the letter, but I feared for my life," he said.

Source: RSF